Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, May 3, 1995

1995-05-03 04:00:00 PDT Paris -- Seeking to sway a large bloc of undecided voters, conservative Jacques Chirac and Socialist Lionel Jospin squared off last night in their only TV debate before this weekend's presidential runoff.

Most of France's 40 million voters in Sunday's election were expected to watch the two-hour debate, a key event since it was first held in 1974.

Unemployment hovering over 12 percent, immigration and European unification are among other issues in the race to succeed ailing Socialist Francois Mitterrand, who is ending his second seven-year term.

Jospin quickly took the offensive in the face-off, accusing Chirac of planning little reform and of overspending in the campaign, which he called "a real problem."

Looking characteristically intense, Jospin reiterated his proposal to shorten the seven-year presidential term to five years.

"Five years with Jospin is better than seven years with Jacques Chirac," he told his conservative rival, who said he was not opposed to reducing the term of office but believed there were more important issues to debate.

Jospin also said he would limit the number of elected offices a politician can hold. Many prominent French politicians hold local, regional and national posts simultaneously.

Chirac, smiling and relaxed, responded that Jospin relied on unofficial campaign spending figures and said he was "not against the five-year term," contending there were "enough problems to resolve."

In the last polls permitted one week before Sunday's vote, Chirac, the 62-year-old Paris mayor and an ex-prime minister, had nine- to 10-point leads over Jospin, 57, a former education minister.

But about 20 percent of the electorate said they could change their minds before they cast their ballots. The margins of error are up to 3 percent.

Among the undecided were backers of far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who won 15 percent of the first-round vote April 23 with a promise to fight unemployment by expelling 3 million immigrants in two years.

Yesterday, Le Pen claimed that his National Front was the victim of a "witch hunt" after the drowning of a Moroccan man during a march led by Le Pen across Paris on Monday. Police detained at least three skinheads to investigate reports that the victim was shoved into the Seine by a group taking part in the march.

Across the political spectrum, from mainstream conservatives to the far left, the death was blamed on the anti-immigrant rhetoric favored by Le Pen and his party.

Both Chirac and Jospin condemned the death. Chirac invoked a "feeling of horror" and said he hoped police would find the perpetrators. Jospin called the death "more than stupid brutality. . . . There is xenophobic discourse . . . we must move with force and vigor against racism."

Jospin led the nine-candidate first round with 23.3 percent of the votes, but Chirac -- second with 20.8 percent -- is favored in the runoff because about 60 percent of the voters supported right-of-center candidates.

However, Le Pen -- a bitter enemy of Chirac -- has refused to endorse the conservative, telling supporters Monday that the Paris mayor "is worse than Jospin."

In an apparent bid to influence the debate, Le Pen said during Monday's rally that he would wait until the day after the debate to announce how he will vote.